Operation Hydra
by Xavier Andrews
Summary: This story is about what Project Carthage was about and how XANA is back.
1. Chapter 1

11:54. Michael Belpois was lying in bed, trying to go to sleep.

11:55

Suddenly, he sat bolt upright. His computer monitor has just powered on. Assuming it was just a trick of the light; he turned over and lay down again. He didn't, however, see the red symbol that flashed onto the screen. His dreams that night were haunted by strange red symbols, lines of computer code, and various mathematical formulae.

5:35

He sat up in a daze, eyes misted over and a strange tattoo glowing on the back of his neck. He sat at his workstation and began furiously typing an email.

"Aelita, did you send me a message this morning?" a bleary eyed Jeremie asked, anxiously, "No, why?" "I got a message around five-forty five this morning, from my father. He was frantic about something, but the weirdest part was, it was written in binary! Also, he didn't sign with his own name. He signed as a Mr. Xavier Alexander Nicholas Andrews." "That is weird, Jeremie! I'll look into it."

Ulrich Stern looked in the mirror. He was a rugged, good looking boy. He didn't think he was vain, either. He had not been the MVP in soccer for nine years straight for nothing. His roommate Odd came into the room, walking strangely stiffly. "Odd, are you OK?" Odd didn't say anything. Nothing. Not one thing. If you didn't know Odd, this was normal, or just a bit, well, odd. But, if you knew him at all, you would realize something was very wrong. Very wrong. Suddenly, Ulrich began to feel faint. Then, Odd collapsed onto his bed, a mist floating out of him. The ominous looking mist made its way over to Ulrich, and seeped into his brain.

Jeremie sat in Science, bored to death. Normally science was his favorite class of the day, but finding the base chemical in a solid biome model was easy for him. He went over his Dad's email in his head.

_Son,_

_ I met your friend Odd today. Very nice boy. Yes, very cooperative. We got into a minor debate, and it was easy to get him to see our point of view. We enjoyed seeding Odd's brain with some new ideas. WE NEED TO TALK, ASAP._

_Thanks, _

_Your Dad,_

_Mr. _

_Xavier_

_Alexander _

_Nicholas _

_Andrews_

_P.S. _

_I'm meeting up with your friend Ulrich today._

The letter was strange, to say the least. But as he looked at the initial of the signature, it hit him in the head. X.A.N.A. He immediately sat bolt upright. "Mrs. Hertz, here is the assignment. I'm leaving now." He yelled as he ran out of the room. As he arrived at Odd and Ulrich's room, he was hesitant to open the door, afraid of what he might find. He turned the knob, opened the door slowly, and looked inside the dark room. Unable to see, he reached over to flip the wall switch. As the lights came on, his eyes widened in horror.

Down the hall, William Dunbar walked into the Boy Dormitory, and saw Jeremie on his knees, clutching the doorknob, sobbing, "NOO!!!! You can't be gone!! Not both of you!!!!!"


	2. Chapter 2

Michael Belpois, or as he now called himself, Xavier, was on his way to the train station. The midnight train to Paris left in forty-five minutes. The Prime Minister was not a patient man. He had used his work connections and had gotten the Minister to meet with him. There was only so much you could do in twenty minutes without a Scyphozoa to help you convince, if you could call it that, someone to see your point of view. As he arrived in the train station, he grinned. It was just too easy.

_Beep…Beep…Beep_ The sound of the EKG machine was deafening. Yumi sat in the hospital room of Odd and Ulrich. She thought ironic, that even near death, and they still shared a room together. She thought back to that day. That day so many months ago, the day that her life fell apart. It was all a blur. She could only remember fragments, like listening to music on a staticy radio.

_William running, yelling. Finding Aelita, both suspecting XANA, until they remembered that they had erased him from the World Network. Seeing Jeremie, crying, screaming, and howling like a madman. Seeing Ulrich and Odd, lying in bed. Dead, or so she thought at the time. Ulrich, her Ulrich, pale as a sheet. Cold hands. Ambulances, sirens. Men in white suits, taking Jeremie away. Sissi seeing Ulrich being loaded into the ambulance, screaming. The electrical zapping sounds of the defibrillator. Hospital, with the men. The men in black suits that asked Aelita questions. Her, being taken into a dark room. Jeremie, in the mental hospital. Sissi, on every antidepressant ever known to man. Aelita, gone. Left. No one was left. William, even. He had gone after it all died down. He wrote occasionally, but Aelita only left one cryptic note. _

Yumi,

I don't know when, or if, I am coming back. I stumbled onto something big. Like really, really big. XANA and Lyoko were just one tiny part of Project Carthage. Which, in turn, was only one tiny part of Operation Hydra. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google the word Hydra. Read. Also, T.S. Eliot is someone to listen to. If you read anything of his, listen. We were the Oysters. They were the Walrus and the Carpenter. We were the JubJub bird, and if it all works out, They will be the Jabberwock. Also, there is one stanza f his that I know, that has always been a mystery. I understand it now.

_This is the way the world ends,_

_This is the way the world ends, _

_This is the way the world ends._

_Not with a bang but a whimper._

Aelita.


	3. Chapter 3

Xaiver glanced out the train window, grimacing at the filthy human wasteland. He didn't understand humans at all. That was why he was part of the Hydra.

Aelita was running. That was her entire life since she had left Kadic. She had no home, no family to speak of, two of her best friends were dead and in wooden boxes in the ground, and another was locked away in a mental asylum. Just then, another man in black careened near her in a small, black sedan. She flipped onto the car, drove her spiked cleat boots into the roof, and jumped off.

Yumi was at the hospital when her phone beeped. It was Aelita. She ran out of the hospital and answered the phone. "Aelita?" She asked, hopeful, "Is that you?" Her face flooded with relief, then turned to rage. "Why are you calling me now? Why didn't you stay for at least a week? I have gone through this al BY MY SELF! You are a selfish JERK!" The tears were coming fast now. "Please, Yumi, listen to me-""NO! Unless you are coming back, I don't want to see you again! Ever! Don't ever call me!" She was boiling mad now. "That's just it. I'm at the airport. I need a ride." "Really?" Yumi said, than she rememberd who it was. "Call a cab. I'm at the hospital. With Ulrich and Odd." "You mean they're not-""No. And they never were. Room 113." She hung up, crying.

In the room above, the heart monitors spiked. Walking back into the room with her head down, Yumi heard the sudden activity of machines. Snapping her head up, she saw a flurry of activity. Nurses running down the hall, doctors flying out of door to come to her room. "Nurse, what does this mean?"

Her breath caught when she heard the reply. "It means they're waking up." She tried to go into the room, to see Ulrich, her Ulrich, but they were only allowing hospital staff into the room. She ran to the waiting room, wishing that Aelita would be there quickly. A nurse came down, a look of anxiety on her face. "Their vitals are returning to normal. You should be able to see them in about twenty minutes." Yumi resisted the urge to scream and shout for joy. Just then the cab pulled up. A girl with brown hair climbed out of the cab, paid the driver, and walked into the hospital. "Aelita is that you? Why is your hair brown?" Yumi was full of questions, but she just ran up and hugged Aelita as hard as she could. "I missed you," Aelita said, "All of you." Yumi, forgetting her anger, said "They're waking up! We are not allowed in yet, but they're waking up!" Just then a nurse walked up to them. "They're ready." The rwo girls walked up to the door, and Yumi motioned for Aelita to stay back. She walked into the room, and her face lit up with joy when she saw Ulrich sitting up in bed, propped up by his hands. Her grin was dampened, however, when he said, "Who are you? Why are you here?" Odd looked confused, too. "You don't remember me?" Yumi said, worried. "No," Odd asked, "Why should we?"


End file.
